Colombian Paola Guerrero reads to penguins to help kids save the planet

At a book festival in Colombia's tropical city of Medellin, Paola Tello Guerrero is regaling a school group with a tale about a brave young woman from humble beginnings like them who travelled to icy Antarctica to read to the penguins.

But there's a twist: the youngsters' jaws drop as she tells them the woman in the photo, reading letters to a group of penguins, is actually her.

Ms Guerrero went to Antarctica with 75 other women with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) backgrounds from all over the world, as part of an Australian-led leadership initiative called Homeward Bound.

Ms Guerrero, 32, says the idea of the penguin letters came while trying to calm down a noisy group of Bogota schoolgirls during a workshop.

"My family don't have a lot of economic resources, but my parents gave my brothers and I a lot of 'competitive advantages.' We grew up knowing other realidades [life experiences] and more importantly, they taught us to appreciate people and moments over money."

Her family name Guerrero means warrior in Spanish and in her speeches she asks youngsters if they are valiente (brave) enough to reduce their plastic consumption or to raise awareness of other environment issues — using caring words, not combative ones.

While Ms Guerrero entrances her young audience, her dad, Orlando Tello Rueda, looks on proudly from the back of the tent. He's a meat-worker in Bucaramanga, a provincial city the size of Newcastle.

He isn't surprised Paola's volunteering her time: a room full of rowdy kids is nothing she can't handle after studying physics at university, living in the UK and finding sponsors for her trip and subsequent educational tour.

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